Walk Me Home
by Darkchilde
Summary: Set after 'A NIght To Remember". What happened between Catie and Jamie after the show ended?


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!   
  
After seeing "A Night To Remember" for like, the third time, I got to wondering what happened between Catie and Jamie after the show ended? So I got to thinking about it (in the middle of class no less!), and this is what I came up with. Now, I don't know how good this is, but I thought that I would send it out anyway, let all of you decide. IF enough of you ask for one, I've left this story wide open for a sequal (which is something that I love to do, if you've ever seen any of my writing for any other genure.) So, if you want more, write in and tell me! I love feedback! :) (But when feedbacking, remember, I've only been watching the show for a little while, I don't know if I got the characters right, and I don't know anything about thier pasts.)  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine, all...Disney's? Heartbeat Inc? SOmething like that. In fact, I don't think that I own anything in this story, except for the story itself. (Though, if some one wants to GIVE me Christopher Ralph, you know, I'll be happy. :) )   
  
Walk Me Home   
  
Hospitals have a certain smell to them. All the anti-bacteria, orange scented cleane5rs and high powered deodorizers mixed with constant human suffering, blood and tears, swirled together to create a scent that was unique to a hospital. Most of the time, the only people who noticed the odd smell were people that spent a lot of time in hospitals.   
  
Jamie Waite spent a lot of times in hospitals. Even before he had been coerced into joining the squad, he'd been in this place more often then he would like to remember. The white cement of the wall pushed against his back, cold and solid and unyielding. The chill of the stone crept through his leather jacket and sent a shiver down his spine.  
  
He drew his knees up closer to his chest, his chin resting lightly on his kneecaps. A tear slipped down his cheek. He reached up a hand to wipe it away, but a softer hand beat him to it. Startled, he jumped, and found himself face to face with Catie Roth, her dark hair still covered by her glittering gold chain wig.   
  
"Jamie…" She whispered softly, her fingers lingering on his cheek for a minute. Jamie let a small smile lift his lips, but he laid his head back against the wall, turning his face away from his friend's concerned expression. He heard Catie sigh softly, then felt her shoulder brush against his as she sat down beside him, just close enough for their shoulders to whisper against each other.   
  
Jamie kept his eyes trained on the wall in front of him, his slightly quivering lips and glistening eyes the only outwardly sign of his inner torment. Catie looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye, and sighed softly, reaching out to touch the sleeve of his jacket.   
  
He jumped slightly, then turned his deep brown eyes on her, the question plain in his eyes. Catie bite her lip, and tighened her grip on the leather of his jacket, holding his gaze for a second before speaking.   
  
"It wasn't your fault." She whispered to him, wishing that he would understand that none of ths was his fault. Their was nothing in the world that he could have done to stop Kenny. Kenny was gonna do what Kenny was gonna do, and nothing that anyone could have said or done would have stopped him. Jamie couldn't continue to blame himself because Kenny choose to be an idiot. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair to Jamie.   
  
"How do you know?" Jamie asked, as if somehow reading her thoughts. "How do you that their wasn't something...anything I could have done to keep him off that ladder? I should have...I should have done something..."   
  
Catie swallowed hard, and slowly slipped her hand down from his wrist and wrapped her long fingers around his, pressing slightly. Jamie surprised her by turning his palm upward to catch her hand, and then tangling their fingers together, squeezing them gently. She let a small smile touch her lips, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, trying to psycially send him all the strength that she could.   
  
Jamie leaned his head against her hair, letting the soft strands caress his cheeks. He swallowed hard again, and drew in a deep breath. The scent of her hair was mixed with air he breathed, and he let out his breath with a silent sigh.   
  
Catie's hair smelled like suger and spice and roses and rain, all mixed together with a gentle, biting scent that was uniquely her. The smell was surprisingly pleasing, at least to him. Most people, he decided, would think that it was too agressive, too abrasive, too harsh, to be soothing. But he liked it, liked the way that it made him feel, liked the way it tickled his nose just right. It reminded him of...  
  
Jamie forced the thoughts out of his head, focusing back on Kenny, his friend Kenny, lying in a hospital bed, with a concussion and broken leg, because Jamie couldn't backdown from a challenge. He unconciously tighened his grip on Catie's hand, drawing strength from the contact with her smooth skin.   
  
"Jamie?" Her voice was slightly muffled by his jacket, but he heard her clearly enough.   
  
"Yeah?" He whispered, his voice husky and rough, even to his ears.   
  
"I hate to do this...but I gotta go...my parents are already gonna kill me." Catie told him, making no move to to rise from her position next to him. Jamie's eyes flickered to the clock, and he was shocked to see that it read two thirty seven a.m.   
  
Blinking, he looked at it again, but the numbers stayed the same. Sighing, he stood up, letting go of her hand as he did so. Jamie extended his hand down to her, and she took it gladly, letting him help her to her feet.   
  
"Come on. I'll...walk you home." He told her, keeping a hold of her hand and moving toward the door.   
  
"I'm a big girl Jamie, I can get there by myself." She informed him, lifting both of her eyebrows. Jamie made a face at her, and tugged on her hand, still refusing to drop it.   
  
"It's two in the morning on Halloween, Catie. Think about that." Jamie reminded her, moving toward the glowing red exit sign.   
  
"So you're gonna walk me home to scare away all the ghouls?" Catie remarked, a smirk in her voice.   
  
"I'm gonna try." He informed her softly, all teasing gone from his voice.   
  
"Oh." Catie picked up on his tone, and quieted down, following Jamie out of the hospital and out into the bitingly cool air of the dark night.   
  
A full moon shone down on them from above, making everything glitter and glow in the silvery light. The stars sparkled in the heavens, glowing like diamonds in the black velvet of the sky. Jamie and Catie began to walk in the direction of her house, neither one of them speaking, but not breaking contact with one another either.   
  
The air was strangely peaceful as they walked along, each lost in their own thoughts. The streets were empty of people, even the mischief makers having already sought out their beds. Jamie's heavy boots thumped heavily on the sidewalk, and Catie's long black and gold skirt shuffled in time to the rythem of his shoes.   
  
They hadn't said a word to each other by the time that they reached the end of Catie's driveway. Her eyes, long since adjusted to the darkness of the night, peered up the driveway, trying to make out if her parent's car was in the driveway. It wasn't.   
  
"Well, looks like they haven't gotten back from their little foray yet." She muttered sourly under her breath, dropping Jamie's hand to walk up the driveway. She was surprised when Jamie moved as well, keeping pace with her as she walked to the door.   
  
"And you are doing...what?" She asked, stopping half-way up her driveway to cross her arms over her chest and look at him.  
  
"Walking you to the door. I hear it's what all gentlemen do." Jamie shot back, a grin appearing on his face for the first time since Kenny's accident.   
  
"Not like you would know." Catie remarked ideally, a grin to match his own pulling at her lips.   
  
"Your parents are gone?" Jamie wanted to know, noting the lack of cars in the driveway.  
  
"Probably off getting smashed somewhere." The words were out before she realized it, and Catie blushed slightly, cursing her tounge. But Jamie didn't look surprised, just pulling his mouth down into a slight frown.  
  
"Your parents do that too huh?" He asked softly, reaching up to run a nervous hand through his jet black hair.   
  
Catie lifted an eyebrow, and slowly nodded. Something suddenly occured to her at that point; in all the time that she and Jamie had been friends, she didn't think she had ever seen his parents. Actually, she didn't know anything about his family at all.  
  
"You...uh...wanna come in for a while?" She asked him, without thinking. Jamie looked at her in surprise, his eyebrows taking an excursion into his hairline. Catie smirked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Not like that. I just don't...don't feel like being alone tonight." Belatedly, she realized that that probably hadn't sounded much better. "I mean..."  
  
"I know what ya mean. And...thanks." Jamie whispered, stepping up onto the bottom step. She stepped up as well, going ahead of him to make sure that the door was unlocked. It was, and she sighed loudly.  
  
"My parents are going to get us robbed one day." She remarked over her shoulder, pushing the door in and flipping on the light. Jamie followed her in, and looking around in interest. The hallway was done in light brown, the walls and carpet complimenting each other perfectly. A mirror and several paintings hung on the wall, and a small, cherry wood table rounded out the hallway.   
  
"Nice." He told her, and she rolled her eyes.  
  
"My mother lives to decorate."   
  
"Really?" Jamie asked, looking at one of the pictures. He turned to face her, and smiled. Catie ignored the slight flutter in her stomach, and moved toward the living room. "Not what I expected from someone with a daughter like you."   
  
"Yeah well, me and my parents are completly different." Catie assured him, as he followed her into the living room. Sighing, she flopped down on the overstuffed brown couch, propping her feet up on the cherry wood coffee table, the match to the table in the foyer.   
  
Jamie sat down next to her, much more carefully. Catie grabbed the remote, sitting on the arm of the couch and flipped the TV on, looking over at Jamie out of the corner of her eye. He caught her looking and smirked at her, and she rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the TV.   
  
Some cheesy black and white movie was currently blaring out of the TV, and Catie sighed, lifting the remote to flip the channel.   
  
"Hang on for a minute." Jamie asked, surprising her. Dropping the hand that held the remote, Catie looked blankly at him. "That's 'Psycho'."   
  
"Oh boy, the ORIGNAL slasher movie." Catie snorted, annoyed.   
  
"And what's wrong with slasher movies? It IS Halloween." Jamie reminded her, his eyes fixed on the screen.   
  
"Fine, but if I puke, it's your fault." She grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking back into the sofa.   
  
"Your kidding right? YOUR afraid of slasher-flicks?" Jamie laughed in disbelief.   
  
"So what if I am?" Catie asked defensivly.   
  
"Never pegged you for the type. I always figured you scared Val by making her watch them with you late at night or something." Jamie turned back to the TV screen.  
  
"Other way around." Catie told him, turning her eyes so that she was looking at his profile and not the screen.   
  
Jamie's attention snapped from whoever Norman Bates was hacking up on TV to her face. "Val--VAL--likes slasher movies?"   
  
"Oh yeah. The gorier the better is her motto." Catie shuddered, her face turning slightly white. "I still haven't forgiven her for making me watch 'The Excorist" with her."  
  
"Now that is a disturbed movie." Jamie said by way of agreement. "Now, wait a minute. If you don't like slasher stuff, what do you like? If you say chick flicks, IU'm never speaking to you again."   
  
"No, I don't like chick flicks. I like...I don't know. Movies with plot. Movies that aren't just mindless violence or ridculous, supposed "comedy"." Catie encased the word comdey in quotes with her fingers.   
  
"So I guess Van Dame and Jimmy Carry aren't your favorite actors?" Jamie asked her. Catie shook her head, her lips pulled down into a frown.   
  
"Not quite."   
  
"Well then, what's your favorite movie?" Jamie asked her.   
  
Catie twisted her lips to one side of her face, before sighing and saying "You'll laugh."   
  
"Why, what is it? "Pee Wee's Big Adventure"?"   
  
"Not." Catie snorted in disgust. Jamie lifted his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. "It's "Casablanca", okay?"   
  
"Your joking." Jamie asked, his deep brown eyes wide.   
  
"No, I'm not. So what? I mean, what's yours? "Mortal Kombat"?" Catie demanded, slightly stung.  
  
"No, it's not "Mortal Kombat". It's "Rebel Without A Cause"."   
  
"Really?" Now it was Catie's turn to be surprised.   
  
"Yeah, I wanted to be James Dean when I was a kid." Jamie told her, laughing quitely.  
  
"That explains the jacket and the five o'clock shadow, I guess." Catie thought out loud.   
  
"Nah, I'm just to lazy to shave. Plus, ya know, makes me look..." Jamie trailed off, looking for the word.  
  
"Stupid?"  
  
"Well, I was actually thinking more along the lines of ruggad."   
  
"Ah."   
  
"What? You don't think I'm ruggadly handsome?" Jamie teased her, miming a hair flip. Catie lifted an eyebrow, and tilted her head to the left.   
  
"Well, I wouldn't go that far." She informed him, much to his amusement.   
  
"See, that's why I like hanging out with you. You never let anything like 'tact' or 'politness' get in the way of what you have to say." He told her, grinning brightly.  
  
"Well, ya know, I try," Catie nodded her head, a small smile hovering on her lips as she did so. A scream drew their attention back to the screen, and they both watched as Norman hacked the young woman in the shower up with a butcher knife.   
  
Catie cringed, and turned her face away. Jamie noticed, and grinned, reaching out to take her hand, for the third time that night. She clutched it tightly, trying not to look at the screen as the girl screamed. Jamie saw her again, and fought back a laugh. She really was scared, he told himself, scooting closer to her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, so she could hide her face in his chest if she wanted to. Catie pressed her face into his jacket, and blocked her ears to the sound of the girl's death cries.   
  
Jamie wrapped his arms around her body and gave her a hug, unthinkingly. She reacted by snuggling deeper into his embrace. He chuckled lightly, stroking her back lightly, as the girl's blood ran down the drain.   
  
As soon as that part was over, Jamie poked the girl in his arms to let her know that it was safe to look again. However, she didn't move from his arms, and he looked down at her in surprise. Her eyes were shut, her long eyelashes just touching her cheek. The wig on her head was askew, and he reached up to take it off, letting her dark brown hair fall naturally around her face. Unable to stop himself, Jamie pushed a lock of it back, the silkly tresses sliding through his fingers.   
  
A wave of sudden contentment rolled over him, and leaned back against the couch, Catie still in his arms. Closing his eyes, he reveled in the feeling, letting it completely take him away, only for a minute.   
  
He was asleep in half a minute, Catie still cradled protectivly in his arms. 


End file.
